18 ms·

Interesting, I do a lot of backcountry with no cell and have mostly relied on old style maps turned to PDFs and downloaded or various OSM apps, this looks up my

by xoa 7y ago

Interesting, I do a lot of backcountry with no cell and have mostly relied on old style maps turned to PDFs and downloaded or various OSM apps, this looks up my alley. One question though I often have for membership programs: how does it apply to families? I very much value all 4 of us in my household having the ability to share key apps and data, particularly for something that has safety applications. I see you have a Teams program but that looks commercially oriented. Apple has "Family Sharing" but for paid apps. How does that scenario work with Gaia Topo? If I grabbed a 5 year premium sub, would the kids be able to run off that too (at least while they're living at home) or does each individual need a separate membership? Not trying to single you out or anything, I think a lot of the current app sales models and sub models are fairly individual focused at the present stage of things. More explicitly addressing couples/families (including what happens as they grow up/split) might be worth considering though, I think a lot of people will spend significantly more if it benefits links with household members.

andrewljohnson 7y ago
You can share a Membership as long as you don't mind sharing the username/password combo. You'll all end up recording your data to the same account, if you record tracks, photos, etc. Your family might not need a Membership at all though - that's only if you need to download maps for offline use, or if you want to use different map sources... Gaia Topo and all the features besides mass-downloading are free.
- xoa 7y ago
  >that's only if you need to download maps for offline use Well yeah that's pretty critical (particularly as a differentiator vs Apple Maps). I'm in northern New England, huge portions of north NY and VT/NH/ME have no cell coverage at all. Let alone Canada. Online maps are nearly useless not just for hiking and general backcountry work but even regular driving to job sites. My own town has no cell at all downtown, not just "no LTE", no cell coverage period. If you've ever looked at coverage maps the phone companies put out showing huge areas all nicely lit, know that they are flagrant lies that are finally even getting government attention. If you're interested, first search result article that came up is one from last year on VT going ahead and actually spending 6 weeks driving around the whole state testing themselves: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/vermont/2019/01/24/vermont-cell-phone-coverage-maps-dead-zone-verizon-att/2467205002/ https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/vermont... A touch different then what the cell companies claimed :). Thank you very much for the reply though! It's good to know that, with the caveat of no individual profiles, an account could be shared around a bit without getting auto banned; I know some services do track that. FWIW, might be worth considering as a some-day feature to have a cut-down version of your Teams offering or a bundle as an official Family Plan, for a bit more money than standard with "up to 6" (or 5 or whatever) profiles. At any rate though, good to have more options to consider in mapping.

by xoa 7y ago

andrewljohnson 7y ago

You can share a Membership as long as you don't mind sharing the username/password combo. You'll all end up recording your data to the same account, if you record tracks, photos, etc. Your family might not need a Membership at all though - that's only if you need to download maps for offline use, or if you want to use different map sources... Gaia Topo and all the features besides mass-downloading are free.

xoa 7y ago
>that's only if you need to download maps for offline use Well yeah that's pretty critical (particularly as a differentiator vs Apple Maps). I'm in northern New England, huge portions of north NY and VT/NH/ME have no cell coverage at all. Let alone Canada. Online maps are nearly useless not just for hiking and general backcountry work but even regular driving to job sites. My own town has no cell at all downtown, not just "no LTE", no cell coverage period. If you've ever looked at coverage maps the phone companies put out showing huge areas all nicely lit, know that they are flagrant lies that are finally even getting government attention. If you're interested, first search result article that came up is one from last year on VT going ahead and actually spending 6 weeks driving around the whole state testing themselves: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/vermont/2019/01/24/vermont-cell-phone-coverage-maps-dead-zone-verizon-att/2467205002/ https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/vermont... A touch different then what the cell companies claimed :). Thank you very much for the reply though! It's good to know that, with the caveat of no individual profiles, an account could be shared around a bit without getting auto banned; I know some services do track that. FWIW, might be worth considering as a some-day feature to have a cut-down version of your Teams offering or a bundle as an official Family Plan, for a bit more money than standard with "up to 6" (or 5 or whatever) profiles. At any rate though, good to have more options to consider in mapping.